Fu Wengui

Fu Wengui: A Teenager With An Unusually Long Neck

  
      

Fu Wengui is a Chinese teenager living who lives with an extremely long neck. While the usual human cervical vertebrae consists of 7 bones, Wengui has ten! The extra bones cause pressure on the nerves in his neck, resulting in pain and difficulties with ambulation. According to Wengui’s father, Fu Genyou, when he goes out in public, he causes a stir.

In addition to extra bones in the neck, Wengui also suffers from other conditions. At the age of six, he was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis and an abnormal chest frame. Congenital scoliosis is a rare (occurring in just 1 in 10,000 newborns) deformity that causes a sideways curvature of the spine. It is present at birth and caused by a malformation of the spine.

congenital scoliosis

A 1910 portrait of a 4-year-old with congenital scoliosis and fusion of the ribs.

When Is Wengui’s Surgery Scheduled?

Thanks to the generosity of a Beijing-based charity, Wengui is said to undergo surgery in hopes of correcting his abnormality. The goal is to significantly reduce the length of his long neck. If the operation is successful, it would greatly reduce his daily pain and discomfort.

If you go on Google.com and search for “Fu Wengui,” you will find various sources saying doctors at the Chaoyang Hospital are in the process of creating a treatment plan for Wengui. However, there has been no information on Wengui since 2014. There is also no scheduled surgery date. As soon as we get an update, we will immediately make changes to this article.

Sydney V. Smith: The Woman Who Earned The Name “Giraffe Woman”


Sydney Smith is a 30-year-old woman from Los Angeles, California. Her love for giraffes lead to an obsession that took over her life. With five years of wearing a stack of heavy neck rings, she has become famously known as “The Giraffe Woman.” The heaviest was a stack of 15 rings around her neck , weighing 5 pounds. Smith’s goal was to be known around the world for her long neck.

After trying to look just like a giraffe for several years, she made the decision to give it all up. While the process of pushing down the collarbone might sound painful and awkward, it was something that Smith actually enjoyed. In addition to the feeling of the rings around her neck, she also claims the weight on her collarbones was quite comforting.

While Smith no longer has rings around her neck, one might assume that the length remained the same. The neck may appear slightly longer than it was before she started her mission, but it isn’t anything like it was when she had 15 heavy brass coils around it.

How Long Is The Longest Neck In The World?

copper coils around the neck

If you type in “longest neck in the world” on Google, you will see a variety of different pictures and YouTube videos of Fu Wengui —as if he was the current record holder. However, you will find absolutely nothing that mentions the actual length of his neck. According to Guinness World Records, the maximum known extension of a human neck is 15.75 inches.

Interestingly, the immensely long neck of the current world record holder was not caused by a dreadful abnormality beyond their control. Due to the successive fitting of copper coils, as a sign of beauty, the length was actually created by a woman of the Padaung or Kareni tribe.


Despite living a life with unwanted physical and mental pain, Fu Wengui hopes he will one day have a normal neck. With future surgical intervention, hopefully his wish will come true.

This entry was posted in Human Abnormalities on by .

About Joseph Caltabiano

Joseph Caltabiano is a writer, oddities lover and a former surgical technologist. He left the field of surgical technology to pursue a career in blogging and internet marketing. As clearly shown in his posts, Joseph is very passionate about unusual topics. His two most favorite topics are medical and weird science.